“We’re going to try and figure out what happened here,” Seth said as soon as he was off the ladder and in the main room. The women and children watched him anxiously, Devora’s eyes full of questions.
“What did you see?” she asked quickly.
“Two of the domes have been blown open,” Seth replied, moving quickly toward the airlock. “The third seems to be intact, but we don’t know if there are any survivors. We’ll be back soon. If anything happens, or anyone approaches the ship, you can call us on the com. I’ll leave the feed open so you can hear us.”
“But don’t call us with your stupid women’s crap,” Calvin muttered as he entered the room. He paused to give them a harsh glare. “We’ve got more important things to do.”
Quickly pulling on their pressure suits Seth and Calvin went through the airlock He had strapped his blaster onto the side of his hip. The slow cycle seemed to take forever as Seth peered out the small porthole toward the base. Something just seemed wrong. When the light flicked green, he and Calvin stepped through the door and descended to the surface. There were still no signs of life. Seth motioned his companion toward the still-intact dome, and they started lumbering their way across the uneven surface. It was as if someone had gone so far as to try and destroy any hope of repairing the base by attacking the rock itself. All around them, the landing field was pitted with craters.
As they came closer, there were more signs of violence. A pressure suit glove, spent energy blaster casings and scorch marks littered the surface. The main entrance to the dome was directly ahead of them, but Seth noticed a large, blackened pile off to the left. Telling Calvin to wait for him through the com patch in his suit, Seth moved closer to investigate. It looked as if some had used a proton gun to try and destroy whatever it was in the pile. Kicking aside some of the debris with his foot, Seth made a discovery that sent him stumbling back.
A sooty skull grinned up at him.
In horror, Seth realized he was probably staring at the remains of those who once lived on the base.
Who had done this?
“Calvin, come here,” he said. “I think we’ve found your friends. At least some of them.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Calvin muttered, walking toward him slowly and heavily. The man was not in good shape, and lumbering around the surface left him breathing unpleasantly loud into the com unit. “Holy shit. They slaughtered ‘em.”
They both stood staring at the mound. Most of it had been burned so fiercely that nothing but ash remained, but here and there a bit of bone was visible. Seth felt sick to his stomach.
“Drop your weapons and turn around slowly, hands where I can see you,” said an unfamiliar voice through the com unit. “Otherwise I’ll kill you. I don’t have a damn thing to lose, so don’t push me.”
Seth dropped his gun, then raised his arms slowly. Calvin hesitated, then did the same. Seth hadn’t actually trusted him with a charged weapon, but Calvin didn’t know that and neither did their captor.
Slowly, the two men swiveled to face the man who had come up behind them.
He was dressed in pressure suit that had definitely seen better days. It was scorched from blaster fire, and had been patched in several places.
“Who are you?” the man asked, seeming anxious. “What group are you with?”
Seth wondered if he was the only survivor.
“I’m a trader, just passing through,” he said. “This is my colleague, Calvin.”
“I’m a Pilgrim, and this is our base,” Calvin said brashly. “Who are you? What happened here?” Seth could have strangled him for being so rude to their captor. The last thing they wanted to do was piss the man off, but Calvin was about as stupid as they came. If he wasn’t lucky, he was going to get himself killed before too long. Hell, sometimes Seth was tempted to do the killing.
“Me?” the man asked. He chuckled to himself a bit wildly, and Seth wondered if the man was unbalanced. Being stuck alone in a burned out base for a month or two might do that to a man, he figured. “I’m the new owner of Bethesda base. It’s my territory now, and you guys are trespassing.”
“What the hell-“ Calvin started to bellow, but Seth backhanded him across the chest in disgust. He fell to the ground gasping.
“My friend didn’t mean to be rude,” Seth said quietly, trying to engage their captor. “Perhaps we can come to some kind of arrangement? We aren’t interested in causing any trouble.”
“An arrangement?” the man laughed. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think we’re past making arrangements.” Without warning he fired his blaster. The shot took Seth off guard, then the ground next to him sported a new blast mark. He’d missed. With sudden insight, Seth realized the man didn’t have much experience with a gun. There might still be some hope for the situation.
Calvin was still on the ground trying to catch his breath, oblivious to the drama taking place above him.
Suddenly, he rolled over and vomited in his suit. The movement startled the man with the gun, and Seth leapt toward him. The man never saw it coming. One minute he was watching Calvin gasping and the next he was on his back, pinned down by Seth’s bulk. Seth wrenched the gun out of his hands and held it against his neck.
“Now, let’s get some answers,” he said coldly. “What the hell happened here?”
“I told you, I’ve got nothing to lose,” the man giggled. “Go ahead, shoot me. Then at least it would be over.”
“It’s not going to be that easy,” Seth said. “I need information, and you’re going to give it to me. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The hard way will be extremely painful, and it could take a very long time. Now, who are you?”
“I’m Bragan,” the man said after a minute. No longer giggling, he seemed to have grown suddenly morose. “I’m the doctor here.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Seth said. “What happened?”
“The slaves revolted,” the man said. “They found a way to remove their implants and they revolted. The Pilgrims fought back and they died. Poor Pilgrims, they got a taste of their own medicine…”
Seth sat back on his haunches, keeping the gun trained on Bragan. All the fight seemed to have drained out of him, and he simply laid there in his pressure suit.
“Are there any other survivors left beside you?” Seth finally asked.